“When I get involved with a boy, I’m goin’ to be the one callin’ shots. When I get married, my husband can be the head of the house all he wants. But I’m goin’ to be the neck, and the neck is what controls every move the head makes.”

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Ruby Jean Upshaw was a piece of work. She was a preacher’s daughter raised in a household with 6 older sisters. In fact, she was the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. Ruby raised a lot of hell and still managed to be seen in her parent’s eyes as nothing but an angel. Ruby’s best friend, Othello, in the meantime, was the daughter of the town tramp and no one let her forget it.

Through their years of growing up, there was a baby born out of wedlock, travels to New Orleans and Florida, work in a whorehouse, fieldwork, husbands, babies and murder. Ruby always remembered the baby she was forced to give away and never truly let Othello forget that she blamed her. Changing her name to Mama Ruby, her life begins to spiral out of control in ways she never imagined. What was she going to do?

I picked up this book because the main character’s were also the main focus of Ms. Monroe’s book The Upper Room. When I first picked that one up, I felt that the storyline was a little bit rushed. That’s why I was happy to pick up Mama Ruby and really delve into her background. I got to find out how she became the person she was in the other book.

I can’t wait to read the next title in the series, The Lost Daughters. I already have it in my bag!

Editor’s note: Please use the comment button below to leave any response you may have about the book or the review.

“...the war came to me in my dreams and showed me its sole purpose: to go on, only to go on.” - Private John Bartle, Narrator, The Yellow Birds

According to New York Times journalist Chris Hedges and author of What Every Person Should Know About War (2003), there have been a mere 268 years of peace in the roughly 3,400 years of recorded human history, a trend that gives no indication of ending any time soon, if ever. Even if Mr. Hedges’ calculation is somewhat inaccurate, it is clear that the specter of war has shadowed the world for as long as the human has been walking.

The United States as a nation finds itself today in the state of war, something that can all too easily be forgotten in the hectic modern life that civilians lead – there are bills to be paid, careers to be lead, children to rear, etc. This, however, is not the case for either veterans or active duty personnel, as Kevin Powers illustrates in his 2012 debut novel, The Yellow Birds; Mr. Powers served in Iraq with the U.S. Army in 2004 and 2005.

I am a civilian and have never served in any department of the armed services, and I, too, find myself forgetting, at times, that there are Americans who are fighting abroad, but regardless of whether one supports or opposes the war that is being fought, people are dying, and I believe it important to listen to the stories of those involved, and fiction is a powerful means by which these tales can be conveyed.

While the characters and plot of The Yellow Birds are fictitious, the story that unfolds is both believable and moving. Mr. Powers pens impressive prose that provides the reader with a glimpse of what combat in Iraq was like for the American soldier in the mid-2000's and the effects that this can have on the individual long after he or she has returned home.

“To say what happened, the mere facts, the disposition of events in time, would come to seem like a kind of treachery. The dominoes of moments, lined up symmetrically, then tumbling backward against the hazy and unsure push of cause, showed only that a fall is every object's destiny. It is not enough to say what happened. Everything happened. Everything fell.” - Private John Bartle, Narrator, The Yellow Birds

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Willow is scrappy, stealthy, and smart – and that’s a good thing. His world is in a not too distant future where the Earth is experiencing a new Ice Age. For most of the year the world is blanketed in ice and snow. Just like early humans in the previous Ice Age they must live off of primarily animals while there is snow on the ground, so hunting is a way of life now for anyone not living within the city limits. This is exactly where Willow and his family live; essentially off the grid and under the radar of the oppressive government that is now in charge of the United Kingdom.

Willow comes home from a hunt to find his cabin ransacked and empty. There is no one in sight, no one to answer his calls into the woods, and no note left behind. Their coats and belongings were all still there as if they left, or were taken, in a rush. They always knew it was dangerous to live outside the city. They weren’t supposed to but they hadn’t been hurting anyone out here.

Where are they? Who did this? What is he going to do on his own? Before he can think, he hears someone coming back to the cabin. All he can do is run, and hope to find his people when he can.

On his own he can move fast and undetected but then he meets Mary. She is in a similar situation as him, and all alone. Mary isn’t a hunter, isn’t stealthy, and has a lot to learn about the world.

Will she slow him down?

Can they find their people?

Can Willow and Mary make it through a world where most people have lost their human decency? There are the government, trappers, hunters, cannibals, and a whole host of people only looking out for themselves.

Will the two even survive the winter?

This is a great book for teens that are fans of survivalism and post-apocalyptic stories but with a new twist; it’s no disease or world war causing this breakdown of society but climate change. You can almost feel the cold by the way in which S.D. Crockett goes into detail about the crunching of snow beneath feet, breath hanging thick in the air, the numbness one can get when subjected to too much cold for too long, and the urgency of being alone of the run.

Mary Shelly Black was just 16 years old, in 1918, when her father was dragged off to jail accused of treason, because of his German heritage and the fact that he doesn’t believe in the war. While the Spanish Flu epidemic raged around the world, she was sent to San Diego to live with her Aunt, while her father awaits his trial. She is in love with Stephen, a young photographer, who is heading off to war torn Europe. They will briefly meet, one last time, as she poses ungraciously for his brother Julius, a spiritual photographer. Friends since childhood, Stephen shares his mistrust and dislike of the fake photography in which his brother Julius is involved. He leaves Mary Shelly with two of his own precious photographs, for fear Julius will destroy them, and a cryptic message.

Mary Shelly’s photo with a ghostly figure beside her in the background, taken on an earlier visit to her Aunt, has brought in a good deal of business for Julius. Wanting to add another photo of her to his display, thereby proving he can capture a deceased loved one for a price, Julius tries to pull Mary Shelly into his schemes, bilking those who have lost loved ones to the flu or war. As the months pass, Mary Shelly tries to make sense of all that is happening around her: people dying, reading to veterans, missing limbs and wits, at hospital, while corresponding with Stephen and her father. When Stephen’s letters stop, he comes to Mary for help. He tells her they are killing him. But can she solve the mystery and help the young man she so loves …one last time.

Historical fiction at its richest, In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters takes you into the trenches of Europe, the hospital wards of the recovering and dying veterans. You can almost taste the terror of a country flooded with the fear of death and feel the pain of loved ones no longer of this Earth. You can almost smell the onions and garlic used to fight off the flu, see the blood splattered fields of the war torn earth and hear the crying of pain from the sick, maimed and dying. The emotional impact of those who are so desperate to bring back a loved one that they will believe that an image of the spirit can be captured by a camera or hear a voice in a séance; it can make your heart ache. There is mystery and romance as well in this tale that will have you curled up in a corner somewhere back in time.

Interspersed throughout the book are actual photos of the time period and further historical information at the end of the story.

Editor’s note: Please use the comment button below to leave any response you may have about the book or the review.